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Saturday, April 5, 2014

For this month's Eggless Baking Group, Priya suggested this Julekake which is a Norwegian Christmas Bread. This bread has some interesting ingredients which looked so much Indian to me from the Candied Citron to the cardamom powder. I could not do this bread as soon as it was announced as I wanted to lay my hands on the candied citron. Now citron is nothing but our very own naarthangai which is quite popular for pickles and pachadi in Tamil Nadu. Then I wanted to use Candied orange and to my surprise, I could not find that too.. So I finally used dried Cranberries which also has a tart flavor like the naarthangai. The resulted bread was awesome!!! We loved it texture and the taste.. It was quite soft and so flavorful!!

Today we travel to Central India to the State of Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh is a newly formed Indian state and was born on November 1st, 2000. Chhattisgarh is known as the rice bowl of India and has a rich varieties of rice and rice based dishes. A lot of the traditional foods are prepared with rice, rice flour, curd and green leafy vegetables. When coming to sweets, Gulgula is one of the popular sweets from this state. I got this recipe from here. A delicious sweet from the state of Chhattisgarh. This is so quick to make and also very delicious…

Friday, April 4, 2014

Come and travel with me to the State of Bihar. A state which was quite popular in History. Many great empires like Magadha, Mauriya were here. It is also a very fertile land with Ganges flowing and the a big portion forms part of the forest which makes it a big contributor to the fruits, flowers and vegetables. Cuisine of Bihar is highly popular. Bihari cuisine has a lot of vegetarian dishes and this is due to the influence the society which is predominantly Hindu values of non-violence and Buddhism. However there is a tradition of fish eating with the many rivers in Bihar such as Ganges, Sone and Gandak. I got this recipe from here. It was so perfect and delicious.. We loved it..

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Taking you to the North Eastern state of India - Assam. Assam is rich in culture and is quite popular for the Assam tea, Assam Silk and Assam Oil. Assamese cuisine has a lot of drying and fermentation in their process. Usage of spices are not much here but use of Fish and vegetables are used a lot with the center dish – rice. Coming in today’s recipe, it is a delicious sweet called Pitha. Pitha is a rice cake made on the special occasion like Bihu. For this state, my search ended quickly when I saw this recipe in Gayathri’s blog and did it. I got this from here and loved it..

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Today we are travelling to the North Eastern part of India – Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal translates to “Aruna” is the one of the names of Sun god. Arunachal Pradesh translates to “Land of dawn lit mountains”. Some states were very hard to find recipes and Arunachal Pradesh is one among them.. I was hardly able to get any vegetarian recipes that are authentic to this state. Most of the recipes had dried fish in them.. This thupka was finally a breather.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Today we are starting the month long marathon with each day for one state in India. We have decided on 30 states and doing them alphabetically.. First comes the state of Andhra Pradesh. This is what I have always heard about Andhra dishes – “Dishes are very spicy.. They have a lot of garlic usage. Many thuvayals and podis are quite famous there. The dishes are high in oil content”. Again this is what I have heard… With little search from the internet – Andhra is the biggest producer of Red Chili, Rice and millets and these occupy a heavy part of their cuisine too.. Pickles are an important part of the cuisine. There are many popular Andhra dishes like “Hyderabad Biriyani, Pesarattu, Minapattu, dibba roti, sago upuma, varieties of pappu, gongura pickle etc”.. A traditional and authentic dish from Andhra Pradesh which is typically enjoyed for breakfast. I got this recipe from here.. Dibba means plump.. This dish is very plumpy. Soft inside, but crispy on the outer.. This tasted delicious with coconut chutney or tomato urugai. It is preferred to use a iron or heavy brass pans to make this dibba rotti, but you can make in non-stick also.. However I loved it when made with the iron pans.

I have always wanted to do the authentic dishes from each state in India.. I have learned so much from blogging for the cuisines of the other states.. But I did want to take it little more than just me trying it.. So I suggested to Valli sometime last year and she agreed.. Then started this idea of doing a month long marathon with all of us doing same state on each day..

We are going to be cooking recipes from 30 states for the next 30 days and they are in the alphabetical order of A-Z. Srivalli has put together a link up for each state where you would be able to look through what is everyone cooking for that particular state in one place.. Recipes by about 28 of us doing each state.. That is quite and exciting and thrilling.

I did suggest, but when it came to some states, it was so so tough, that I was so tensed and no so happy with my own suggestion. I could not lay my hands on vegetarian recipes and after so much search and research, I am quite happy that I made the suggestion and we all are going to travel to each state through its cuisine..

So much of Google and Wikipedia and also cookbooks have been looked and used for the research.. So as of now this minute, I have finished cooking and clicking 21 states.. Still stuck on 1 state.. Still researching it.. But I am confident that I will be able to finish this Marathon with all the support..

With the search and research (call it re search meaning search again), I have learned so much more about my Country and I am feeling so excited for that.. I have given the source for all the recipes...

Please support me and my friends who are doing this Mega Marathon with me with your valuable comments and likes!! You will surely enjoy this travel through the Indian states by its cuisine..

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Melon Pan is a bread that has no Melon and No pan either!!! It is a double layer bread with bread layer topped with a cookie layer.. Pan is the Japanese word for Bread which is borrowed from Portuguese and there are quite a range of Pans in Japan. This bread is the choice by Aparna for this month’s We Knead to Bake and the recipe is adapted from here and have made few changes. You can take a look at this video which has an excellent tutorial on the Melon Pan. The bread layer in this pan is very soft and is quite addictive and it is covered with a layer of crunchy cookie layer. The Melon added to the pan to give the name Melon pan could be from the crosshatch design on the bread. This recipe will give 8 - 10 burger sized melon pans... Melon Pans are best enjoyed on the day it is made.